When a patient is being given a massage, bodywork or other physical therapy treatment in a hospital, clinic or a doctor's or practitioner's office, the patient may be placed on any one of a number of different, permanent supports which may be set up in such establishment. The support chosen may be fixed, but adjustable for the size of the patient, as well as the height of the person engaging in the massage, bodywork or other physical therapy treatment. Examples of such permanent or fixed types of patient supports may be seen in the following United States patents: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,391,438; 4,398,707; 4,662,361; 4,746,167; 5,401,078; and 5,487,590.
While many persons may go to an establishment in order to receive a massage, bodywork or similar type of physical therapy, many others, particularly those in executive or other stressful employments, may feel that they are not in a position to take the time to visit an establishment in order to obtain a massage. Such latter persons, however, may desire massage treatments, if administered in their offices or at some other places of their employments. Thereby, such individuals may not lose the time it takes to travel to and from a massage establishment, but they may be willing to give up a relatively short period of time, such as ten (10) minutes to half an hour, in order to receive a massage to relieve some of their job tensions and stresses--particularly where, in some situations, they may engage in dictating or telephone conversations while being massaged. The needs of these busy individuals have been satisfied by visiting masseurs who may arrive at a subject's office by appointment, and set up to provide a massage in the office of the subject, or at some other location at the place of employment.
While some types of massages may be administered to a subject in almost any position, desirably the subject should sometimes be placed on a type of table, or in some special seated or prone orientation. This requires the masseur to bring with him or her some type of portable support on which the subject may be placed. To this end, various types of portable tables or supports have been devised, but none has been found suitable for placing the subject in several different orientations, so that the most effective massage treatments can be administered.
Another problem has been that, portable massage tables heretofore available, have been of a standard size and height. Where the masseur is tall, he or she may be able to effect a proper massage with the subject placed on such a table. However, where the masseur may be short in height, it may be difficult for the masseur to administer an effective massage if the subject is disposed on a high table.
It is also important that, for a traveling masseur, the apparatus which he or she carries into a subject's office, home or other location, be light enough in weight so as not to make transporting the apparatus a difficult and uncomfortable task.